The government is waiting for a Minister as Zaev waited for a mandate

Aleksandra M. Mitevska

One seemingly technical issue, as the staff shift seemed to be in the Ministry of Health – when Arben Taravari entered the race for the mayor of Gostivar, is developing these days in an endless story whose main character is likely to eventually become known to the public.

If this continues with the same pace as in the past two months, to drag on the process of completing the government after the local election, then it would not be a surprise if Zoran Zaev’s office entered the new year with incomplete composition. If the bidding with deadlines continues (that has been made regularly in the past period), when an agreement between the ruling partners is possible, of course, that they will additionally intensify and the suspicions that something does not tune in the tripartite coalition. That the problem is not in the personal decisions that would arise from the Zaev or Zijadin Sela camps, nor in the possible rotations of the ministerial names … but that the problem is in the new relations between the partners of “Ilindenska”. And in their capacities to ignore personal animosities for the executive to continue to function in full staff.

The main reason is the same, both for the vacant places in the Government, and for the disturbed relations between the parties that participate in it. And that reason is – the local elections. The only this that is different is the consequences, after SDSM entered the pre-election coalition with DUI in several municipalities, after which the covert intolerance between Sela and Ali Ahmeti was concealed.

In the first case, the biggest consequence is that a capital department, such as the Ministry of Health, has been beheaded for more than two months, at a time when the new government, which constituted itself in a very tumultuous political environment, just finished its first one hundred days. In the case, with the broken communication between the government partners, the possible consequences are still in the domain of assumptions. They are in the direction that even the thin parliamentary majority could be challenged if one of the parties decides (incidentally) to leave the coalition. Unless SDSM does not provide a pre-reserve option for new partners on “Ilindenska”.

And while waiting, and waiting … for Zaev to deposit the names of the new ministers in the parliamentary archive, various combinations of quorums are being “trampled” on a daily basis in the parliament. Commission sessions are scheduled and postponed, and the opportunity is used to push some solutions while the opposition is outside the legislature.

Meanwhile, Sela sent sharp messages from Washington to partners in Skopje. This should not be a great surprise if we take into consideration that his party “Alliance of Albanians” has only declaratively participated in the ruling coalition for a long time, although practically has no representative on “Ilindenska”.

One government cabinet that seeks to carry out such major reforms, as announced in the “3-6-9” plan, and to get support from the opposition, cannot afford small tricks like: “Will DUI give support for the new Minister of Health of the Alliance for Albanians “,” whether Sela will be located to stay in the government in which Ahmeti is “or” until which date there will be a contract to complete the cabinet – by the end of November, to the middle of December, next week or some date in February, March … ” A ruling coalition that has the ambition to present itself as a reformer can not afford to be hostage to personal intolerance among some of its partners and to constantly extinguish fires over some underdeveloped political ambitions.

If the negotiations between the partners for the completion of the executive continue to stretch like this, in the end, it may be that this Government was waiting for a new Minister of Health for almost as long as Zaev waited for President Gjorge Ivanov to give the mandate. At that time, citizens protested in the streets against the so-called Tirana platform, after which the demonstrators entered the Parliament.

This situation was not at all trivial for allowing now the very heavily earned coalition to squeak for so long and even louder – for banal reasons.